Voter registration ended Tuesday in Colorado, Florida and Ohio, three critical pieces to the electoral battleground puzzle, along with a dozen other states.
An aggressive registration push by President Obama's campaign produced Democratic advantages in nearly every swing state where registration is cataloged by political party. But in most states, Republicans are cutting into the Democratic margins that helped sweep Mr. Obama into office four years ago, according to preliminary figures from state election officials.
The closing day of registration lured Mr. Obama and Mitt Romney to Ohio, where voters do not specify a political party, but both campaigns pushed hard to get supporters to register.
In Florida, Democrats started the day with a 450,000-voter edge over Republicans, which is down from 610,000 in 2008. In Iowa, preliminary numbers showed that Democrats recorded a 12,000-voter advantage over Republicans, dow n from a 103,000-voter advantage four years ago.
A survey of election officials in swing states on Tuesday found that Colorado was the only battleground where Republicans had a preliminary advantage over Democrats, by about 14,000 registered voters. But the key to Colorado and other states rests in independents or unaffiliated voters. Final state-by-state figures will be available later this month.
